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Identification and expression analysis of APETALA1 homologues in poplar

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Abstract

APETALA1 plays a crucial role in floral transition from vegetative to reproductive phase and in flower development. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of AP1 homologues in poplar was performed by describing the gene structure and chromosomal location. The phylogenetic relationship of the deduced amino acid sequences of Arabidopsis AP1 and AP1 homologues from Populus, to other AP1-like proteins was analyzed. The expression of PtAP1-1 and PtAP1-2 in Populus tomentosa was examined by RT-qPCR. Expression profiles were similar and both genes exhibited a high expression level in the reproductive phase. Seasonal expression profiles in floral buds indicated that the pattern of PtAP1-1 and PtAP1-2 expression in male and female floral buds was different. The trends of the PtAP1-1 and PtAP1-2 transcript levels in both sex floral buds were similar, but the peak of expression of the two genes in male buds was earlier than in female buds. This work would be of value to future functional analysis of AP1 homologues in poplar.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2011AA100201, 2013AA102703), the Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170631, J1103516), the Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team Program of China (IRT13047) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (BLYJ201410).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants of the Ministry of Education, College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, P. O. Box 118, No. 35 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Zhong Chen, Xiong Yang, Pian Rao, Kai Gao, Bingqi Lei & Xinmin An

  2. Beijing Center for Physical and Chemical Analysis, Beijing, 100094, China

    Xiaoxing Su

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  1. Zhong Chen
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Correspondence to Xinmin An.

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Communicated by Y. Wang.

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11738_2015_1805_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig. S1 Schematic representation and physical location of the structure of AtAP1, PtrAP1-1 and PtrAP1-2 genes. a Schematic representation of the structure of AtAP1, PtrAP1-1 and PtrAP1-2 genes in Arabidopsis and poplar. Exons and untranslated regions (UTRs) are indicated as black and gray boxes, respectively, and lines between boxes indicate introns. b Physical locations of PtrAP1-1 and PtrAP1-2 genes on the genomic scaffolds (chromosomes). The scale bar represents 2.0 Mb. Scaffold numbers and sizes (Mb) are indicated below each scaffold (TIFF 425 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 425 kb) (DOC 11 kb)

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Chen, Z., Yang, X., Su, X. et al. Identification and expression analysis of APETALA1 homologues in poplar. Acta Physiol Plant 37, 50 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-015-1805-z

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